September 25, 2007

• Draggin' y'all down my memory lane...

  Thanks to Heather for alerting me to an old acquaintance, a Rev. Harry Heintz.  I knew him as just "Harry" back in the good old days of high school when he was the youth pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady.  For some reason I did not fit in with the youth group at my own Baptist church.  Perhaps it was because we went to different school systems or because we had different interests.  They were interested in fooling around in Sunday School and I was interested in listening to what the teacher had to say. 

  Our neighbors, the Lawrys and their neighbors, the Massengills went to First Presbyterian Church and were kind enough to take us to the Vacation Bible School that was held there.  That was probably my introduction to First Pres, as we called it.  I don't really remember why I began going to the youth group there, which was called Theta Pi, I think, or just Thetas.  I know that I seemed to fit in with the kids there much better.  They were so much easier for me to talk to and become friendly with.  Some of the names that I recall are Dave Rice, Dave Tomhave, Porter Wightman, Karen VanCouvering (she had a boyfriend named Wayne), Debby Massengill(she had a boyfriend named Steve) and Bob Sluiter.  There was some fellow named Dan who had a girlfriend named Grace and a brother named Tom.  Dan owned and drove a Model T in the Thetas caravan, and heads turned whatever street Dan drove down.  Dan was a new Christian and a leader in the group.  I remember that he and Harry had some kind of altercation.  I did not know the details, but in retrospect I can imagine that perhaps Dan was giving too much impure attention to Grace and not enough attention to his leadership position.  His car was cool, but perhaps he was not the best example as a leader.  I remember another very sweet girl named Diane whose family was upset because she wasn't speaking in tongues.  First Pres never taught on that subject. so her family might have had Pentecostal leanings.  I can see Diane's sister's face but cannot recall her name.  And then there was a rotund girl of Italian heritage with whom I was friends until I got too friendly with a fellow that she seemed to think was her territory.  I can see her face, too, but the name escapes me.  Maybe it was Joanne.  The friendship ended when she borrowed my favorite hat and lost it accidentally on purpose in a hay wagon.  A fellow named Dave Ryan came occasionally, too.  He was a handsome fellow who was a leader in my school.  He would write his own songs and perform them for us.  I still remember one of them.

  Those Friday nights were really the most fun occasions of my high school years.  We would begin the evening by visiting a nursing home to hold a short worship service for the people there, and they we would go out for our own fun - roller skating, hay riding, trips to Hoffmann's Playland, a Sadie Hawkins Day race complete with mosquitoes, swimming, miniature golf, tobogganing, you name it!!  And who could forget that weekend canoe trip?  There were no tents and it rained all night.  I can still smell the outhouse.  After the Friday night fun we would all load back into the cars and go to someone's home for snacks and devotions.  The members of the group would all take turns in leading the devotions.  I don't think Harry ever preached himself on Friday nights, but rather gave us practice doing it ourselves, which was good for us because it made us dig into the Word.  (I do remember occasions when he did teach in the church building.  Maybe this was a separate Bible study night.)  How was it that Harry managed to pack service, fun and meditation all into one night?  And how was Harry able to manage all of the raging hormones in the group and focus our attention on spiritual things?  It must have been quite a challenge. And the people that opened their homes to a bunch of noisy, grubby, hungry teenagers deserved much more thanks than we gave them!

  I dropped Rev. Heintz an email, and if he is reading this, I just want him to know how much I appreciated and will always appreciate the work he did with the Thetas!  I wonder if he remembers Aki, the Japanese exchange student who I dragged along on Friday nights....

  • 09:05
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